THE HAIG COLLECTION

WCM FACTSHEET

The Haig Mining Museum and visitors centre closed its doors at the end of 2015. In April 2016, West Cumbria Mining (WCM) agreed with the liquidator, Baldwins, that the company would lease the former visitor centre building for use as its project

office for a two year period. In May 2019, WCM purchased the site for its offices and to safeguard the historical building

Museum CollectionThe former museum held a large collection of loaned and donated mining related items which included artefacts, photographs, books and other memorabilia, all of which has significant local interest and much of which was donated by members of public.

Recognising the significance of the collection in terms of the mining history to the local community, WCM put together a dedicated team of three staff in the summer months of 2017 to carry out a thorough review of the museum collection. From the end of May through to early September, WCM set the team a task to catalogue and record all of the historical items on the site in order to prevent further deterioration due to damp and mildew, and to safeguard the collection for future generations.

Catalogued ItemsDuring this time, a total of 4,526 items, comprising of objects, photographs, books and documents were catalogued. Some examples can be seen below.

www.westcumbriamining.com news@westcumbriamining.com 01444 410534

j Children’s clogsj ‘Eccles’ safety lamp

j The former museum site

j One of the team cataloging pit tokens

j Canary Reviver

West Cumbria Mining Ltd

Haig MuseumSolway Rd, Kells,Whitehaven, CumbriaCA28 9BG

www.westcumbriamining.com news@westcumbriamining.com 01444 410534

4th Floor, Oakfield House35 Perrymount RdHaywards HeathRH16 3BW

j Items prior to the process beginning

Cataloging the CollectionFollowing on from the closure of the museum, the collection had been stored in containers on site. With no records available or access to the previous cataloging system, WCM had to start this process from the beginning in order to make a definitive catalogue of the collection.

The project took a total of fourteen weeks and began with organising the items into suitable categories to make the cataloguing more streamlined.

Each item was catalogued, photographed and scanned, then given a unique identification number before being wrapped using specialist materials such as acid free tissue paper and archival pockets. The items were then carefully packed into boxes and placed in heated and dehumidified containers to reduce potential deterioration. All of the costs for this project including staff, equipment and packaging materials were donated by WCM.

To complete the exercise, in addition to a unique ID number, every artefact has been given a storage location number, to simplify locating objects in the future.

For enquiries please call WCM's Head Office on 01444 410534, or email news@westcumbriamining.com

Please note that the museum remains closed to the public at this time.

j Catalogued items stored securely

WCM is seeking to ensure the site retains relevance to the mining industry and local heritage in the long term and that the collection stays together. The catalogue is available to view by prior appointment. To make an appointment, please email news@westcumbriamining.com or telephone WCM's Head Office on 01444 410534.

How to Reclaim Loaned ItemsIf you have loaned an item to the museum collection and wish to reclaim it you will need to provide evidence of ownership by producing the original loan receipt detailing the item/s which were deposited. It is also useful if you have a photograph of the item as some items in the collection may be similar or duplicated.

If you originally donated an item/s to the collection then the transfer of ownership at that time transferred to the museum. Upon closure of the museum this then transferred to Baldwins and then to WCM. In this situation, unfortunately WCM will not be able to return such items.